Hailing from Hattiesburg,
Mississippi, Wilder and his boyhood friend Bobby "Crow" Field were just
two among millions of America's idle youth conquered by the sounds, songs and
threads of the British Invasion and by the freedom, emotion, and urgency of Soul
Music. While attending college in Mississippi, they combined their affection for
great bands like the Faces, the Band, the Rolling Stones, Mott The Hoople, NRBQ,
The Who, and Badfinger with a growing interest in early blues, country and R&B.
After
moving to Austin, Texas in 1976, where they played in separate bands (Wilder in
the Eveready Brothers and Field in the Howlers), they were exposed to the music
and manifestos of cool U.K. rock and rollers Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds, who inspired
them with songs and guitarchitecture. After moving to Nashville and putting the
Beatnecks together in 1985, Wilder has without interruption continued to play
the various styles of uneasy listening that got them noticed in the first place.
Their six highly praised albums, It Came From Nashville, Hybrid Vigor, Doo Dad,
Town & Country, Acres of Suede, and About Time, conjure up a sound that defies
comparison to other contemporary rock 'n' roll bands. In concert, Wilder spikes
the punch between songs with potent doses of rustic wit and character, transcendent
mediations, incantations, and codes by which to live.
Wilder is also an
actor who appeared in director Peter Bogdonavich's The Thing Called Love, in the
acclaimed underground classics Horror Hayride and the aforementioned Private Eye
(collected in the video compilation, Webb Wilder's Corn Flicks), and in director
Danny Boyd's cult favorite, Paradise Park. He's a "multi-media threat,"
as the Philadelphia Inquirer put it, and a guy who proves that "being off
center can be very much on center."
Music critics have always warmed
up to the Webb Wilder juggernaut. The Associated Press described the band's music
and stage performance as "a glorious amalgamation of grunge chords, killer
grooves, Screamin' Jay Hawkins theatrics, a healthy sense of humor, and great
pop melodies." The band is "part Georgia Satellites, part Dave Edmonds,
part Elvis Costello and altogether wonderful," beamed BILLBOARD. It's "full
of wit and personality, and devoid of technological or conceptual gimmickry,"
added the HOUSTON POST.
To movie critics Webb Wilder the actor is "Fess
Parker on thorazine," a "saturnine hybrid of James Brown and Jack Webb,
whose cavernous deadpan intonations and crack timing make Corn Flicks a must."
Of Corn Flicks, the CHICAGO TRIBUNE said "it's Twin Peaks with MTV thrown
in the middle," while the LOS ANGELES TIMES described it as "a fertile
field of free-form word play that reflects a literary underpinning."
But
no one describes Webb quite as well as the man himself. He claims to be "the
last of the full-grown men" and "the last of the boarding house people;
a four eyed guy who doesn't smile a lot, but who doesn't frown much either; an
outsider who feels as though he's on the wrong side of the tracks no matter where
he's at; and a guy who knows every thrift shop and plate lunch joint in town."
As for his band Wilder says, "We play both kinds of music, Rock and Roll."
Webb
Wilder's "You Must Be Lonely for a Reason" appears on The
United State of Americana, Volume Six courtesy of Landslide
Records.
